The Story Collider: Epidemics: Stories of Medical Crises

The Story Collider aims to engage the general public with personal stories about science via live shows and a weekly podcast. The founders of The Story Collider, Ben Lillie and Brian Wecht, are both physicists who share an appreciation for good narrative storytelling, such as the kind promoted by Moth StorySLAMS. With each half hour long podcast episode, visitors can listen to two personal narratives, told by scientists and recorded during live events. This episode of The Story Collider features two powerful stories about medical crises. The first is told by Ken Heller, who recounts encountering the AIDS crisis - and homophobia - as a medical resident and young gay man in 1981. Heller also discusses losing his partner to the disease in 1994. In the second story, neuroscientist Maureen Boyd discusses her experience of studying the science of addiction and working in the field of drug policy while having a close family member ill with mental illness and drug addiction. Through this link, visitors can listen to both stories in full or read the complete transcript of each talk. New episodes of the Story Collider are released weekly.